Sonic Youth will begin work on a new studio album soon, with a release date tentatively pencilled in for early 2009.

Speaking after a show in New York on Friday night, Thurston Moore told NME.com that while the band have been keeping out of each other’s way of late, they will reconvene soon to begin work on studio album 16:

“We haven’t gotten together in about four months,” said Moore.

“We’ve been taking a nice sort of break, which is good. I’ve been actually able to escape into the basement. We’re going to Australia next week for about two weeks then we’ll come back and start writing.”

Thurston will be in Austin, Texas at South By South West next month with Awesome Color, Tall Firs and Kevin Shields; all acts from his Ecstatic Peace label.